


Shinigami Record, or The Lonely Monster (With an Afterword by translator and Director of Literary Anthropology at Hokkaido University, Dr. Ayaka Tateyama)

by TheCinematicRevealThatBatmanIsDead



Category: Kagerou Project
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-08-23
Updated: 2016-08-22
Packaged: 2018-08-10 10:02:11
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 443
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7840429
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheCinematicRevealThatBatmanIsDead/pseuds/TheCinematicRevealThatBatmanIsDead
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A traditional Ainu folk story dating back to the Kamakura Period (Circa 1185 C.E. to 1333 C.E.)</p><p>A story of showing kindness.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Shinigami Record, or The Lonely Monster (With an Afterword by translator and Director of Literary Anthropology at Hokkaido University, Dr. Ayaka Tateyama)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> This first story serves as a sort of preamble to the more prose-based folk tale, taking the form of a _Kamui Yukar_ , a song that tells a story from the first-person perspective of a deity or spirit.

_ How frail these humans are, and how cruel they can be, _

I sang as I caressed a scar along my stomach.

A human had wandered, as they tend to do, into my cave.

Wielding his bow of spruce and his arrows of wormwood and jagged stone,

he took aim at me.

I stole his life with a twitch of my finger.

How frail these humans are.

How cruel they can be,

I sang, my voice like the wind in the leaves. 

I stood over the man’s shell, now devoid of a soul,

And felt his cold skin against the soles of my feet.

I lived many years after that. The cave changed. The trees changed.

The humans changed. 

I did not change.

The humans fought over everything. They killed one another for food, or for pride,

Or for the shapes of their faces. I watched a group of human children gather around a boy.

The boy would not fight. They kicked him and spit on him, but he would not fight back.

“Coward,” they called him.

“The animals in the forest would eat you alive. No fish nor bear spirit would ever allow

A weakling such as you to kill it, to dine on its flesh.

Go! Starve and make the world a better place for it!”

How cruel they can be, 

I whispered. 

The group of children parted and walked back to the village.

The boy stayed at the edge of the clearing. I watched, hidden by the trees and my power.

Soon, a younger boy ran to his side from a dwelling in the village. 

“Brother” he said,

“Are you hurt?”

“No,” said the first boy. “I’m okay.”

To my surprise, the younger brother began to cry.

Was he upset that his brother wasn’t hurt?

Then, the brothers embraced. They wrapped their arms around one another and held tight.

I had never seen something like this before. It was not another human gesture of anger. 

It was something else.

Warmth. There was such incredible warmth.

I walked into the clearing, and the boys ran.

How frail these humans were.

 

The next time the leaves changed, the village was gone.

Its structures had turned to sand.

Its inhabitants had turned to ash.

The forest was quiet again. 

I was angry. I wept steam and spit tar.

I promised to unleash my wrath on everyone.

On everything.

But there was nothing.

I waited. I waited for years.

A cold fear began growing inside me.

For a moment, I had seen humans display a godly warmth. 

Would I ever see it again?

I sighed.

How cruel…

 

Such was the song the lonely monster sang.

 


End file.
